Cor, Medicine Woman and Magician at your service on Owl Creek Road.

Cor, Duncan and I are ready to travel to unknown places. Follow us as we travel together.

For now I am just watching. I feel strangely timid and unsure of the reception I will get when he looks around and sees that I am here.

It really has been too long. The wasteland I have inhabited has been a lonely place. I am travelling very lightly. I have all that I need in the bag E gave me when last I walked Lemurian roads.

As I stand watching Duncan I contemplate the oceanic realm of the human imagination, the great myths and religious symbols and works of art born over the centuries. I stop to remember the Ravens, those creative women who gave so generously of themselves.

I am ready to go again.

They build large, stick nests in which females lay three to seven eggs each spring. Both parents care for their young, which remain dependent for several months.

I have seriously begun nesting. My new home is a home of the heart. I am in love! This love is one that has been built after passing many tests. It has been built honestly and is a place where I can unashamedly be myself. As I keep ‘gathering sticks’ to nest, like the Small One who watches over part of our kingdom, the weariness is abating, scars are healing and I feel a sense of peace and gratitude.

Perhaps love is like a resting place
A shelter from the storm
It exists to give you comfort
It is there to keep you warm
And in those times of trouble
When you are most alone
The memory of love will bring you home

Perhaps love is like a window
Perhaps an open door
It invites you to come close
It wants to show you more
And even if you lose yourself
And don’t know what to do
The memory of love will see you through

Oh, love to some is like a cloud
To some as strong as steel
For some a way of living
For some a way to feel
And some say love is holding on
And some say letting go
And some say love is everything
And some say they don’t know

Perhaps love is like the ocean
Full of conflict, full of change
Like a fire when it’s cold outside
Or thunder when it rains
If I should live forever
And all my dreams come true
My memories of love will be of you

John Denver

You can follow our trail at Travelling Donkey.

A beautiful black raven is perched atop the power line outside the window where I am writing. She has been loudly cawing, drawing attention to herself and reminding me that she is there. Her call is insistent.

Two years of semi silence is a long stretch by anyone’s measure. Time is the most precious of gifts and it is disturbing to look back and contemplate time that has been lost. Time lost is time when we feel that we have not lived as fully, it is time when one does not feel enriched by creative endeavors, when creativity has been all but drained away.

However, in all honesty I cannot say that the past years have been a wasteland or that time has been lost. My losses have been immeasurable but I have not been at a complete standstill. Rather, some of the creative land that I had tilled has lain fallow while other things, like moving and creating a life for myself in a new place have taken a priority.

Perhaps if I till the ground here I will harvest anew and rekindle some of the old connections that have been a source of inspiration over the years.

The hereditary monarchy of the Wangchuk dynasty in the independent Himalayan State of Bhutan was established in 1907. The first king of the Wangchuk dynasty, Sir Ugyen Wangchuck (1862–1926), was a charismatic figure who came to power against a turbulent background of incessant and complex feuding in that chaotic warrior state. He adopted as the unique symbol of his authority a crown surmounted by the head of a raven. The bird represents a form of “Mahakala“, Bhutan’s guardian deity. The prototype of the founding monarch’s Raven Crown had first been devised as a battle helmet for his father, Jigme Namgyel (1825–81). Known as the Black Regent, he had worn it in bloody struggles against his many rivals within the country and against the British who tried, unsuccessfully, to subdue him.

The story of the Wangchuck dynasty’s rise and triumph moves from a picture of turmoil and chaos to one of relative peace and stability. The heredity monarchy is fairly recent and the Wangchuck dynasty was established in 1907.

Raven Crown today is the official crown worn by the Kings of Bhutan. The Raven is the national bird of Bhutan. The raven is known locally as Jaroq. One time was a capital crime to kill a raven in Bhutan.

It is almost safe to say that if an animal comes in all black, it could be considered linked to the supernatural and scary. Crows have long been thought to become present to represent a bad omen. This could be why this creature has come to symbolize Halloween. Also, they are sometimes believed to be companions of witches and certainly a common part of their brews to cast spells.

A group of crows circling overhead, called a murder actually, has become a tale of superstition claiming someone will die. Of course there are plenty of cultures and folklore that consider a single crow or a murder of crows to be good luck, but when it comes to Halloween, crows are seen as devious. Edgar Allan Poe may not have helped the matter with his classic chilling poetic account of “The Raven” who comes knocking, knocking at his chamber door.

As you decorate for Halloween remember that artificial ravens and crows, used in in moderation, are a great addition to the tops of your tombstones, sitting in trees, and looking over your trick or treaters from the top of your porch, or anywhere they can sit and stare at your visitors as they arrive. These can be found at art’s & crafts stores during the Halloween season. Various sizes can be found as well as owls and vultures. Alternatively .make some spooky ravens for decorations this Halloween

For now I think I need a support team if I am going to come up with fresh ideas for this disturbing playground.

As we gear up for Halloween at Soul Food I am just keeping an eye on The Disturbing Playground. Make sure to join in the fun.
by Heather Blakey